Waste III
Firstly, I'd just like to say you all suck for ignoring my last post, with the exception of the four that didn't: thank you Kate, Nicky, Kimberly (and Alex), and Atieh. Sadly I can't really come to much of a conclusion with just four results, so unless some more people join in it's pretty much wasted. I'm on the friends list of twenty-nine people, I expected a little more. Ah well. I can get on with the entry now...
Ooh dear, what a complete waste of a week. I blame Darius for the start, but really, by Wednesday I could have done something about it. I just ddn't. I got up nice and early on Monday, all ready to go down to Lansdowne to work, but decided to call Darius first just to make sure they hadn't moved over to Ringwood Road yet, even though Nicky told me it was very unlikely. He was feeling ill and said he wouldn't be there, so I said I'd stay at home for the day too, because I needed to see him there. He said 'do you want me to call you in the morning?', and I said yes.
Later in the evening, Graham called me, asking when we were going out. I knew about it in advance, I'd just forgotten because my day had changed. He'd asked me on Saturday if I wanted to go out, but I didn't; if I'm at home I'd quite like to stay there, unless there's something good enough to drag me out that won't happen another day (like tonight, incidentally - Perfect Alibi are back at Kyp's). I'd told him Monday though, since I thought I'd already be out because of Darius, and couldn't really change my mind now. The suggestion improved though; it changed from going for a drink to going to find a Wetherspoon's restaurant and getting something nice to eat. We decided to go all the way to Poole in the end, to 'The Quay', the same one we went to whilst Shanna was here.
It was quite a good evening, but I should say that it's goodness was nothing to do with the travelling or the restaurant. We were there for a good few hours talking about lots of things, but in the end, we might have been better off just having an evening at home together instead. The restaurant ignored our request to not have our food filled with unnecesary crap (a.k.a. 'dressing'), so I had to remove lettuce and tomato and onion and such before I could eat. I'm used to doing it, but I regarded this place as higher in my mind. They let us down several times that night. I still couldn't resist getting their chocolate fudge caek though, and thankfully they got that right. I place that almost equal with the chocolate brownies we had at Applebee's in America, and in fact I think you actually get more here for once.
Travelling home we were entertained by a couple of girls on the bus. One of them was talking to us, until she noticed the other girl and seemed to recognise her. Apparently they'd met at some bus shelter a year ago, or something. They started going on about all the places they'd lived, how their children were living somewhere else with their fathers, all the drugs they'd used, and how all the immigrants into the country were the ones responsible for bringing diseases like HIV over here. You know, the usual.
The last bus back to Northbourne, the closest to where I live, had already gone and the only one available was going to Ferndown via Bear Cross, so I decided to just get off with Graham and sleep at his house. It didn't even properly stop at Bear Cross because of the route it takes, and we had to get off early. I set Graham's alarm in time to get up for work in the morning, but when it went off and I woke up, I wondered what I was supposed to be doing anyway. Darius had said he'd call me, so I waited for a call. I waited until almost 5pm, when Graham had to leave for TK Maxx, and still no call, so I went home.
Somehow though, that late night and whatever I did on Tuesday night, messed up my sleeping very badly. I've got up at about 5pm almost every single day this week. Oh I've woken up early enough for work every time, but still no call, and I keep thinking well... I can work at home. Until Friday, I thought I'll just go in anyway; the program is as finished as it can be for the first phase, and I just need to show Darius and get my money for the last week... but every time I woke up, I thought I only needed to go in for three hours... then two... then when it got down to one, I thought why bother? So yeah, I completely wasted the week.
I have been doing a little work on a few things, but it really is very little. Today and tomorrow though, are once again for CaliHQ3. Except what Perfect Alibi tonight might change... *sighs*. I've been doing other smaller tasks too, that might not be 'work' but are still helpful. I gave C# a proper go, and decided that for applications (as opposed to games), it pwns, and it's likely to be my primary language for the forseeable future. Tidied some more files from my 'Stuff' directories too; almost every system installation I've maintained for the last five years or so has had a folder on the Desktop called 'Stuff', into which goes everything I can't decide where to put. There's so much duplication, and so many old useless files laying around that it all needs to be sorted - five years adds up to at least 20GB or so.
Today, is one year since the day I got up early, having only landed a few hours ago, called a Taxi with Graham, and went up to Prattville High School to meet Shanna for the very first time. Do I remember all the good feelings of the morning? No, of course not. I remember our treatment by the school and other authorities that screwed up our entire visit in the space of a few hours. I want to write to them, even if there'd be little point, just to make me feel better. Unfortunately, their site is awful, and gives very little contact information other than some phone numbers, and I'm not calling them. I found this pages of teacher's email addresses, but that's not much use to me either because it doesn't give their position, only name. If anybody who went to PHS could give me the name of anybody I'd be wanting to write to (mainly principal, office staff, security staff) it would be appreciated. If I do get to send anything, I'll post it here, along with a reply if for some reason they actually respond.
I got Shanna's present to me a couple of days ago, but I've not opened it yet. She decided to open hers as soon as it got there, but I'd rather wait until Christmas. I still have to buy a few things for other people... but I'm not really feeling rushed or anything. I love online shopping, lol - not only more convinient, but usually cheaper too, and far more variety.
Finally, played Serious Sam 2 last night. I'd heard it was supposed to be a kind of joke, but then I'd also heard it was comparable to Max Payne. Those statements are a bit contradictory, but either way it sounded interesting so I gave it a go. It's... good. Kind of strange, really - it's new, although the engine doesn't suggest that... but the content is well made, and amusing, and the gameplay is perfect for that kind of game. I'd say it was like Unreal, but based on a humourous theme instead of a serious one. Lighting is used very effectively to create fear, especially when you've come to learn what the game likes to throw at you, and know it's probably waiting in the shadows. It overwhelms you with enemies, and they're not weak either. I'm talking numbers of fifty or more at the same time, usually of mixed threat, which makes them incredibly hard to deal with together. It balances this by giving plentiful firepower, and the result is surprisingly a lot of very challenging fun. The constant attacks alone would get very boring quickly, but the diversity of the places you fight in keeps it entertaining. I'm actually impressed.
I might have a quick game now actually, before I eat. I don't know if the plan is to go to Perfect Alibi or not... I'd like to, but I owe a lot of work time too, and it's hard for me to get back home after a gig, I almost always end up at Graham's, which doesn't produce much working.
Ooh dear, what a complete waste of a week. I blame Darius for the start, but really, by Wednesday I could have done something about it. I just ddn't. I got up nice and early on Monday, all ready to go down to Lansdowne to work, but decided to call Darius first just to make sure they hadn't moved over to Ringwood Road yet, even though Nicky told me it was very unlikely. He was feeling ill and said he wouldn't be there, so I said I'd stay at home for the day too, because I needed to see him there. He said 'do you want me to call you in the morning?', and I said yes.
Later in the evening, Graham called me, asking when we were going out. I knew about it in advance, I'd just forgotten because my day had changed. He'd asked me on Saturday if I wanted to go out, but I didn't; if I'm at home I'd quite like to stay there, unless there's something good enough to drag me out that won't happen another day (like tonight, incidentally - Perfect Alibi are back at Kyp's). I'd told him Monday though, since I thought I'd already be out because of Darius, and couldn't really change my mind now. The suggestion improved though; it changed from going for a drink to going to find a Wetherspoon's restaurant and getting something nice to eat. We decided to go all the way to Poole in the end, to 'The Quay', the same one we went to whilst Shanna was here.
It was quite a good evening, but I should say that it's goodness was nothing to do with the travelling or the restaurant. We were there for a good few hours talking about lots of things, but in the end, we might have been better off just having an evening at home together instead. The restaurant ignored our request to not have our food filled with unnecesary crap (a.k.a. 'dressing'), so I had to remove lettuce and tomato and onion and such before I could eat. I'm used to doing it, but I regarded this place as higher in my mind. They let us down several times that night. I still couldn't resist getting their chocolate fudge caek though, and thankfully they got that right. I place that almost equal with the chocolate brownies we had at Applebee's in America, and in fact I think you actually get more here for once.
Travelling home we were entertained by a couple of girls on the bus. One of them was talking to us, until she noticed the other girl and seemed to recognise her. Apparently they'd met at some bus shelter a year ago, or something. They started going on about all the places they'd lived, how their children were living somewhere else with their fathers, all the drugs they'd used, and how all the immigrants into the country were the ones responsible for bringing diseases like HIV over here. You know, the usual.
The last bus back to Northbourne, the closest to where I live, had already gone and the only one available was going to Ferndown via Bear Cross, so I decided to just get off with Graham and sleep at his house. It didn't even properly stop at Bear Cross because of the route it takes, and we had to get off early. I set Graham's alarm in time to get up for work in the morning, but when it went off and I woke up, I wondered what I was supposed to be doing anyway. Darius had said he'd call me, so I waited for a call. I waited until almost 5pm, when Graham had to leave for TK Maxx, and still no call, so I went home.
Somehow though, that late night and whatever I did on Tuesday night, messed up my sleeping very badly. I've got up at about 5pm almost every single day this week. Oh I've woken up early enough for work every time, but still no call, and I keep thinking well... I can work at home. Until Friday, I thought I'll just go in anyway; the program is as finished as it can be for the first phase, and I just need to show Darius and get my money for the last week... but every time I woke up, I thought I only needed to go in for three hours... then two... then when it got down to one, I thought why bother? So yeah, I completely wasted the week.
I have been doing a little work on a few things, but it really is very little. Today and tomorrow though, are once again for CaliHQ3. Except what Perfect Alibi tonight might change... *sighs*. I've been doing other smaller tasks too, that might not be 'work' but are still helpful. I gave C# a proper go, and decided that for applications (as opposed to games), it pwns, and it's likely to be my primary language for the forseeable future. Tidied some more files from my 'Stuff' directories too; almost every system installation I've maintained for the last five years or so has had a folder on the Desktop called 'Stuff', into which goes everything I can't decide where to put. There's so much duplication, and so many old useless files laying around that it all needs to be sorted - five years adds up to at least 20GB or so.
Today, is one year since the day I got up early, having only landed a few hours ago, called a Taxi with Graham, and went up to Prattville High School to meet Shanna for the very first time. Do I remember all the good feelings of the morning? No, of course not. I remember our treatment by the school and other authorities that screwed up our entire visit in the space of a few hours. I want to write to them, even if there'd be little point, just to make me feel better. Unfortunately, their site is awful, and gives very little contact information other than some phone numbers, and I'm not calling them. I found this pages of teacher's email addresses, but that's not much use to me either because it doesn't give their position, only name. If anybody who went to PHS could give me the name of anybody I'd be wanting to write to (mainly principal, office staff, security staff) it would be appreciated. If I do get to send anything, I'll post it here, along with a reply if for some reason they actually respond.
I got Shanna's present to me a couple of days ago, but I've not opened it yet. She decided to open hers as soon as it got there, but I'd rather wait until Christmas. I still have to buy a few things for other people... but I'm not really feeling rushed or anything. I love online shopping, lol - not only more convinient, but usually cheaper too, and far more variety.
Finally, played Serious Sam 2 last night. I'd heard it was supposed to be a kind of joke, but then I'd also heard it was comparable to Max Payne. Those statements are a bit contradictory, but either way it sounded interesting so I gave it a go. It's... good. Kind of strange, really - it's new, although the engine doesn't suggest that... but the content is well made, and amusing, and the gameplay is perfect for that kind of game. I'd say it was like Unreal, but based on a humourous theme instead of a serious one. Lighting is used very effectively to create fear, especially when you've come to learn what the game likes to throw at you, and know it's probably waiting in the shadows. It overwhelms you with enemies, and they're not weak either. I'm talking numbers of fifty or more at the same time, usually of mixed threat, which makes them incredibly hard to deal with together. It balances this by giving plentiful firepower, and the result is surprisingly a lot of very challenging fun. The constant attacks alone would get very boring quickly, but the diversity of the places you fight in keeps it entertaining. I'm actually impressed.
I might have a quick game now actually, before I eat. I don't know if the plan is to go to Perfect Alibi or not... I'd like to, but I owe a lot of work time too, and it's hard for me to get back home after a gig, I almost always end up at Graham's, which doesn't produce much working.